CALVIN HARRIS
NEW YORK, NY
WORDS: ANNA LOOSLI
PHOTOS: ABBEY BRADEN
Calvin Harris is one of the most down-to-earth musicians I have ever met. He is so low-key I wouldn't be surprised if he hardly calls himself a musician. Or maybe he was just bored after giving interviews all week in New York. In any case, he's got a dry sense of humor, answers questions with the lyrics to his songs and doesn't really seem surprised that he's the next big thing on everybody's radar. While putting up with my silly questions on an overcast NYC day, Calvin opened up to 'Sup with a wry smile and the occasional odd look.
You've been on tour for a while now and I heard you were pretty ready to go home. What do you miss most about Scotland when you're travelling on tour?
Oh, I don't know. My car. I miss driving around on my own. My girlfriend. But yeah, driving my car. And making music on my own.
I totally understand. I like road trips and don't get a chance to drive very often living in New York. So being on tour, do you listen to any particular artists on the road or when flying places?
God no. I mean, I listen to lots of different stuff I guess. Do you want to know just one artist or something?
Do you have an iPod? What's on it right now?
Well, yeah I have one, but I guess I just don't listen to it very often. I'm not one of those people who always has to have music on. I listen to music periodically. I'm just not a big fan of listening to music all the time and in all aspects of your everyday life. Maybe that sounds strange nowadays but I really only listen to music when I want to listen to music. When I don't want to listen to it, I don't.
So would you say that you prefer to listen to live music or recorded?
Oh not live. Definitely recorded.
That seems kind of odd, given your own music and the kind of scene you play in.
Yeah, I don't really know about that. I never listen to my own music, why would I? I can't quite work out why it's better live or why people like it. They didn't for a long time and then suddenly they did and that's fine with me. But I just think that music sounds better recorded.
So how was it to go from relative obscurity to working with people like Kylie Minogue? You were basically discovered through the Internet, weren't you?
It was super easy. I mean it was weird but I didn't do anything different. I was just fucking around you know, playing music, and somebody heard it and sent it to her, and it just worked out. So no, it's not been anything different or difficult. I'm just doing my thing. People didn't like my music, and now they do, and I don't really know why.
Well, it certainly sounds glamorous to me! It seems odd that you feel you haven't done anything special to draw attention to your music. You mentioned that people didn't use to like your music, but what is the largest show you've ever played?
I opened for Faithless in Manchester. This was before any of my songs came out and it was awful. There were something like 15,500 people there and nobody cared about it. They were one of those headlining bands that like their opener to be unknown and they turn the sound way down so nobody can hear them. It was entertaining, but a totally mental experience. People were just getting drinks and didn't care at all. Opening for bands is always awful, but it's good experience - part of the whole learning curve.
Yeah, the lights are never good for the opening band either. Talk about frustrating! What would you say is the most frustrating thing about the music industry?
Uh oh, I don't want to point fingers or say anything that will implicate me! Let me think about this... I'd have to say that I work with a lot of artists and collaborate with them from time to time. I guess the most frustrating thing about the music industry is when you work with someone to get a particular sound and then, because they're on a different record label or have a different producer or whatever, when the song comes out it's got nothing to do with the song that you had originally created. I guess the answer is to just be careful who you work with and how much of yourself, or your own musical efforts, you give away.
That definitely sounds frustrating! Well, to finish up I have just a couple of silly questions. The first, what's your favorite color?
Favorite color? Seriously? Well, it always changes, it never stays the same. But today I would say [looks out the green front door] green. A really dark, rich green. Mostly it's blue though. Water colors are good. Like the sea with the colors of tropical fish. I need lots of color.
Like the song "Colours"?
Definitely. Tropical colors.
And do you have any pets? Indoor or outdoor?
Yes, well actually, my mum and dad have one. It's a cat. That's its name unfortunately. Just "The Cat." Like, "Can you let The Cat out?" "Could you feed The Cat?" It used to be very much an outdoors cat but now it's old so it's more of an indoor pet.
If you could spend the day as any person from history, past or present, who would you be?
Paul McCartney in 1969. Wait, only for one day? Paul McCartney on November 18, 1969.
What do you think of the smoking ban in the UK?
I don't know. It was actually introduced in Scotland so it's been going longer there than in England, but it doesn't bother me much. I don't smoke. I guess it's weird because in a club you don't smell smoke but you smell when people fart. And people are drinking beer cause it's a club so it just gets really gassy. I guess the answer is don't go clubbing so much.
And of course we have to ask this question... Who "really" created disco?
Donna Summer created disco.